SUP Nature Camping in the Netherlands

We are Canadians who like to camp. When we think of camping we imagine big clear lakes, tall trees, campfires, and wild life (though preferably only from a distance). When we moved to Europe we had visions of camping in the Alps or some such beautiful place – and that is still very much on “the list” – but decided we could start by discovering the country we are living in, The Netherlands. Our first attempt at searching for places to camp gave us lots of family friendly trailer parks. Not exactly what we had in mind. Luckily, Scott never gave up on this dream and searched and translated many many dutch sites until he landed on the idea of the Biesbosch in the South of Holland. We discovered that what we think of camping is called “nature camping” in the Netherlands. While this term means nudist camping in many other European countries, in the Netherlands it is purely just camping in nature (while wearing clothes). Scott put together a rough plan, how to get the the Biesbosch and where the campsites were that we could stay, and one rainy morning in May we started on our adventure.

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Day 1:

Check out our route here!

Scott and I each had a large backpack that contained our SUP boards and most of our camping gear as well as a drybag that we carried. Scott also carried a paddle. I give you this much description so you can picture us walking through the centre of Amsterdam with all this gear. We took the metro one stop to Centraal station, and hopped on a train to Dordrecht. While carrying all of this gear on our backs would not be described as easy, everything went fairly smooth until this point. Once in Dordrecht we were supposed to catch a bus that would take us into The Biesbosch. We waited for quite a while and couldn’t figure out why our bus was never showing up on the list at the station. It turns out this bus is actually one you have to call in advance to let them know you are there to be picked up (Who knew this is how busses worked..). So we made the call and they said they would be there in an hour and a half. Only in the Netherlands!! We were a bit discouraged but we wanted to wait for the rain to pass before we started paddling anyway, so we bunkered down in the Dordrecht train station. An hour and a half later we are waiting for the bus, and up pulls a mercedes car with leather interior and tells us to hop in…. this is “the bus”. We load all our camping gear in this car and head for the forest.

On arrival to the Biesbosch conservation building (our starting point for our journey) we decided to ask the advice of the guy at the canoe rental shop, since we were unfamiliar with the water in the area. After describing our plans he looked at us like we were insane. He warned us that there are two locks and a large river that we wouldn’t be able to pass through. At this point we were both disappointed and a bit frustrated, after travelling all the way here just to give up and turn around. After a bit of time spent staring at the map, we decided we would just take each step one at a time and go from there. Worst case scenario we would turn around and spend the night at a campsite near to the conservation place.

After inflating our boards and loading up our gear, we took to the water and made it to the first set of locks in no time at all. Because we were told they wouldn’t let paddle boards through, we tied up our boards, climbed up a ladder and out of the water to ask the person working at the lock if it was okay that we pass through. She gave me a confused look and said “of course” and we were on our way. No problem. On the other side of this lock was the “unpassable” river. We were told it would be too choppy, the boats going by were too big, and it was too wide… we would never make it across. Well, maybe we got lucky that day but we let one large tanker boat go by and paddled across the river without problem. We were only on the river for a very short time and passed easily through the lock on the other side. (Side note: if you are planning on making this trip, the locks do have operating hours which can be looked up online ahead of time.) Once we accomplished this we knew we’d be on our way… though we were still a bit anxious about our return trip against current on that same river in a few days. More on that later. This area of the Biesbosch was calm and quiet, with lots of wildlife and fellow paddlers (mostly canoers and kayakers). We paddled a total of 10km that day to our first campsite. On arrival we were feeling pretty tired from a whole day of travel and paddle. We arrived to the site to see a dozen other people there. At first we were a bit intimidated but they welcomed us onto the site. We hadn’t planned the whole trip to take us as long as it did so we hadn’t eaten much that day. We frantically unpacked the peanuts and pepperettes to give us enough fuel to set up the tent and make dinner – tortellini with tomato sauce. While one group had a fire that night, we were warned by the others on the site that the police had been by to warn us not to make a fire or risk a hefty fine. While we were a bit disappointed by this, it was probably for the best as we slept as soon as it got dark and cool and got a good night sleep.

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Day 2

We woke up and made coffee and oatmeal. We were pleased and encouraged to find that the instant coffee we purchased wasn’t terrible at all! If you know us, you know that coffee is a very important part of our day. After having a good cup of coffee, we believed that we could do this backpack camping thing after all. After breakfast we decided on packing up and paddling to another site, rather than lounging for the day. We paddled for about 7km on our second day in beautiful hot and sunny weather. We passed lots of huge anchored boats, some that looked like pirate ships and others that were yachts. Many were tied together in “floatillas” – seemed like a nice way to spend vacation! The next campsite had a dock out front for an easy entrance and exit. We were the only ones on the site except for one couple who was just there for a picnic. We spent the afternoon basking (aka burning) in the sun, reading, and tossing the frisbee. By dinner time, other groups started showing up. And later someone came and said they had a group of 15 people that needed a spot. While the unofficial rules of these “pole camp sites” is only 3 tents to a site- what are you going to do if there are 10 and you’re in the middle of nowhere? No one was turned away. It was really interesting interacting with Dutch campers. Mostly it is their camping gear that is so different. Their tents are not at all like what we might see in Canada. Many are teepee-like, some are just tarps thrown over a rope which is attached to two trees or sticks, and others are tiny, sleeping only one person. While we were walking around the site, we kept getting “stung” by a certain plant- though we didn’t know what one. We found out that the whole site was surrounded by nettle- which burns the skin and becomes very itchy (similar to poison ivy- but in small amounts is not harmful). A fellow camper informed us that conveniently, where the nettle grows, another plant normally grows that will actually heal the burn from the nettle. Around dinner time, the large group of campers started collecting the nettle (wearing gloves) and made a soup out of it. This surprised me at first but they said it was actually pretty tasty and is convenient (it’s everywhere- and lots of it!) and free. It’s kind of cool to be able to “eat off the land” but I don’t think I’ll be trying that soup anytime soon. We made some Mexican inspired wraps made with black beans, canned veggies, rice and  seasoning wrapped in a tortilla shell for dinner. No fire allowed at this place either so it was early to bed for us.

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Day 3

We woke up and had our usual oatmeal and coffee. I also indulged and washed my hair using the water filter bag and hose. Today we had to decide wether we were going to turn around, spend the night at campsite #1 and finish our paddle where we started in Dordrecht, or if we could continue on and find our way home from another city. Luckily we had preserved our phone battery over the last couple days so we were able to figure out that there was a city called Geertruidenberg at the south end of the Biesbosch where we could end our trip and catch a bus home. This would allow us to stay at a hikers cabin that Scott was keen to check out. Our total paddling distance for the day was only 5km but there was a short portage which added a bit of a challenge so it took us a bit longer than anticipated. From where we thought we should get out of the water to start our portage we couldn’t see water on the other side and besides a bit of stomped down grass there wasn’t too much of a sign of previous portagers. After Scott ran up the hill to make sure there was indeed water on the other side, we unloaded the gear off our boards and took two trips each over to the other side. There was no good entrance where we needed to get in, so Scott ended up knee-deep in muddy water trying to get everything back on the boards and us on the water again. A little bit of a set back but it was another beautiful day so we were happy. We paddled past farm fields and cows and saw tons of herons and other birds. The hiking cabin was a bit difficult to find by water as it was located on a really small river and we had to pass under a tiny little bridge to get there. The cabin itself was nice, though it was really hot inside so we decided to set up our tent anyway. The surrounding area was very beautiful and there were lots of people passing through the area on a long weekend hike. The site has a water pump but the water from it looked rusty even after being boiled. We decided to go with our trusty platypus filtered water from the river instead. We cooked carbonara pasta for lunch, curry with chickpeas and rice for dinner, and kept warm around the fire in the evening. Though I’m not sure if fires are allowed here- it’s hard to ignore the giant fire pit, so we finally got our evening campfire experience.

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Day 4

We packed up and got on the water early because we didn’t know what our exact plan was for the day and the sky was threatening a storm. We knew we were headed towards Geertruidenberg and thought we could catch a bus home from there. When we arrived to the city we were surprised how industrial it was. My original route plan looked like it was for big cargo ships so we changed it up a bit. We paddled down the river towards the city and saw what looked like a harbour- and it wasn’t too far from the bus stop we needed- perfect spot to jump out, or so we thought. Shortly after we grabbed all our stuff out of the water a woman approached us and we realized we were in a private yacht club. We promised to only be 5 minutes and quickly rolled our boards and packed out bags. In hindsight I think if we had paddled just a little bit further we would have arrived at a public area that would have been a better spot to hop out. Somehow the walk to the bus stop was horrifically painful and I swore I would never travel via public transit with paddle boards and camping gear again. Next time we will rent a car 🙂 We eventually got to Breda where we hopped on a train to Amsterdam.

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Arriving home was such an amazing feeling. Our bodies were the happy kind of tired and our apartment that we left in a bit of a messy state felt like the most luxurious retreat. We were thrilled to have a warm shower and comfy bed. We also felt a great sense of accomplishment- carrying all of our gear and food with us for a 4 day paddle and camping trip in a new and unfamiliar area. We also felt extremely lucky that the weather cooperated with us so well. And of course- we were particularly happy to prove the guy at the canoe rental place wrong! We did it and hopefully it won’t be too long before we do it again!